Tuesday April 28th 2026
The Underbelly at George Square is a popular venue and bar area during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Joe Sullivan
Edinburgh councillors have approved late hours trading for some city venues during the festival after a spot of confusion over a report by city officers.
After the sign off, some venues will now automatically be allowed to stay open two hours later than usual between August 7 and August 31.
Officers asked councillors to sign off on the plans at Monday’s licensing board meeting, which applies to licensed venues which state in their operating plans that they wish to trade late during the festival.
There was some confusion among councillors about how to interpret a part of a report from officers that explained the plan.
It stated that venues would need to make applications to the board if they did not have provisions for opening late during the festival.
It continued: “This period may include days when there are preliminary performances preceding the commencement of the full Fringe programmes.”
Some councillors read this to mean that the period of extended opening times for venues with provisions in their licensing plan to open late would extend to preliminary events at any time before August 7.
Green councillor Chas Booth said he was against that suggestion.
Officers clarified that the ‘period’ in contention was the August 7 to August 31 window, meaning any venues wishing to show performances before August 7 would still have to apply, whether or not they had late opening for the festival in their operating plans.
The city has historically allowed venues to open late during the festival, which draws in substantial numbers of visitors.
The report from officers stated: “The licensing board recognises that during certain periods further extensions of the terminal hour for licensed premises would be appropriate.
“Accordingly, during the period of the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe the terminal hour extensions are set from year to year and that a 2 hour extension to the usual terminal hour of licensed premises is regarded as acceptable in the normal course of events.”
Edinburgh is set to face an earlier run of late-hours trading in June after the licensing board authorised venues showing live sport to screen any world cup matches.
With the tournament in North America, some games are set to start as late as 5am UK time, though Scotland’s latest start is 2am.
The board elected to allow venues which have a permanent premises licence, serve alcohol and have live television in their operating plan to take part.
Venues will be expected to notify the council about their intention to stay open late, and they will also be encouraged to be mindful of their own security, stewarding and ticketing requirements.
They will be able to stay open until 30 minutes after a match ends, though serving alcohol will have to conclude when the match does.
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